Posts Tagged ‘Blästrad EP’

Wow! Yeah, with food being ready to cook and guests arriving at any minute, I’m gonna be brief. This year has been pretty amazing and looking back I am honestly astonished and proud of my efforts these past 12 months. Jeez, no wonder I’ve been tired, ha ha ha.

January started off with two teaser videos for The Norliss Tapes and a jingle (my first!) for French radio show Megawatts (check it out on YouTube). February saw The Cymatics Euro tour and the release of the 3-track EP Sugar Punch (later on discontinued, but I’m not gonna get into that). March saw the debut of The Norliss Tapes with A Little Bit Tipsy, featuring a kick-ass organ courtesy Staffan Segel, and the video soon followed. I also made the sleeve for German fanzine Ox Magazine‘s CD compilation Ox Fanzine Compilation #101.

The second quarter saw the release of Norliss’ second video A Trip To the Moon and The Cymatics Hang Out appeared on the Ox compilation CD mentioned above. After a week’s vacation in April, Bad Robot EP was released with the A Trip To the Moon EP being released prior to that. After May I’m actually surprised to see that June produced nothing (!!!), but to be honest I have no idea why.

July kicked off with The Norliss Tapes getting in touch with the producers of The Adventures of Superseven and Sandra West leading to a fruitful relationship that goes on to this day. And personally this opened up the world of creating soundtracks for me – something that I am really interested in pursuing in the future. I finished the sleeve for the Herz und Liebe EP – thanks to the gorgeousEva Halloween – and The Norliss Tapes wrote the first track specifically for the S7 series – Space Pussyfoot. July also marked the debut of Bad Robot as it was the first track to be featured in the S7 show, namely Operation: Live to Die Another Day. August saw the release of the experimental QUAD – The Norliss Tapes Spatial Stereo Mixes 3-track EP, plus Bad Robot once again being featured in the S7 double episode Op: Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill. After yet another week’s vacation in September I joined The Bigfoot Diaries‘ editor-in-chief Troy Church on air as we discussed corporate music and radio on The Fallon Forum, The Norliss Tapes released the Herz und Liebe EP, and both Bad Robot as well as Space Pussyfoot appeared in the end credits of the S7 series. I also chipped in some $$$ on Kickstarter to help finance Scott Crawford and Jim Saah‘s upcoming documentary Salad Days: The Birth of Punk Rock in the Nation’s Capital to be released in 2013.

The final quarter saw an amazing amount of productivity that actually surprised the heck outta me when I finally had it written down on paper. The Norliss Tapes released the It’s Halloween EP (complete with a video) in October, I finished two videos for the Bad Robot EP, found the time to do the Haunted House of Horror’s Horrific Halloween Twist-a-Rama! podcast (available on MixCloud), wrote a second song exclusively for the S7 series (Superseven in Space Theme), plus saw more songs being featured in the S7 series. Troy Church got in touch and commissioned Halloween-themed artwork for The Bigfoot Diaries and once the Halloween EP was released I sat down to remix and remaster my old hardcore outfit Gå Vidare till Norrmalmstorg‘s sessions and the Blästrad EP was released – complete with two videos. After an interview with punkoutlaw.com regarding GVtN’s EP in November and the video for The Norliss Tapes Groovy I immediately began work on my first solo effort entitled Call Me Greenhorn. The debut S/T EP was released (with two videos of course!) and work on the debut full length began with Australian musician Jamie Coghill aka The Jimmy C providing the drums. The Norliss Tapes had more songs featured in the S7 series but November also saw Call Me Greenhorn’s Here Comes Gorbot debuting in the show. I finished the Armageddon Dub but made it available on my SoundCloud as I deemed it too dark to be included on the full length. December saw me beginning work remixing three tracks for an upcoming EP – finished during my two weeks of holiday vacation – and GVtN was approached by a German label expressing their interest in including some tracks on an upcoming compilation slated for release in 2013 – to which we said yes.

Well, I really don’t have that much info to share right now, but it looks like my old school hardcore outfit Gå Vidare till Norrmalmstorg will see material released on vinyl in 2013. We’ve received an offer and said yes, but that’s pretty much all I can say about it at the moment. Until then, you can always check out the digital release of the Blästrad EP on Bandcamp.comhere, or just stream it on this blog. The recent interview I made with punkoutlaw.com can be found here.

Well, I got around to edit a video for Gå Vidare till Norrmalmstorg‘s Fejk! off the Blästrad EP. Not having that much material to choose from I went for trying to make as an intense video as possible instead of going for a classic lip-synched thing. Hope you like it and feel free to share.

The second video made for Förneka Allt (transl. “deny everything”) was just various photos culled together in blitzin’ fast speed – kinda like the song itself. Having 291 edits in a 39 second song must be some sort of record right? Again, you’ll find the EP at http://gvidaretillnorrmalmstorg.bandcamp.com/. The video:

Like this:

Well, this is now officially surreal: Checking it once again tonight I find that not only is Gå Vidare till Norrmalmstorg‘s Blästrad EP the most popular Bandcamp album in the “Swedish punk” category, but also in the “Swedish hardcore” category as well! Whoof. In order to strike while it’s hot I’ve raided the vaults and dug up some old live footage and will try my damndest to have a finished video for the track Fejk! up on YouTube by the end of the week.

I’ve sent out some emails to various Swedish fanzines and punk blogs and so far the response has been very enthustiastic and one even called it “super”. Me and the rest of the guys are just thrilled by this – although I have to admit having a case of Captain Hindsight right now. I could’ve done this three years ago. But you live and learn.

Well, here’s a bit of unexpected news for all involved; Browsing on Bandcamp – something I highly recommend because you will find something cool sooner or later – I clicked on the “Swedish Punk” category and was very surprised to see that Gå Vidare till Norrmalmstorg‘s EP Blästrad is the most popular right now. Wow!

I had a hunch that people who likes the genre might get into it after it immediately received a bunch of Facebook “likes” in a matter of minutes after posting it, but I’d be lying if I said I expected this. It’s cool though and I sure as hell ain’t complaining. Check it out here and please share the link if you’re into this kinda stuff!

Like this:

Well, this weekend turned out to be one of those amazingly creative and stimulating affairs that I just love to experience. First off a good friend decided to give me a good kick in the butt, insisted that I enjoy life at least once a month and dragged me away from the computer Friday evening for some mucho needed (and appreciated!) rest and relaxation with pizzas and taking the full plunge into the Walking Dead tv-series. I know the damn thing has been running since 2010, and pretty much everybody I know has been telling me how it’d be right up my alley, but I’m a stubborn, stubborn man that insists on doing everything in his own time. I made a mental note of checking it out “some day” early on of course, and now I’m glad I finally popped down some $$$ for the first season on DVD.

The hype was true and my friends were right to tell me to check it out. I liked how the creators managed to make such an improbable scenario so human at the same time (not too surprising though as the producer/director is Frank Darabont who directed The Green Mile.) Instead of going crazy and cover the screen with splatter (that fits good and well within the 80 minute format of a movie) they focused on the true horror of the story and made something that actually struck me as one of the sadder series I’ve seen. Like the old saying goes: in an Apocalypse it’s the survivors that damn their fate. Kick-ass show, although as someone who experienced the anti-horror hysteria of the 80s it was pretty damn surreal seeing the same concept being a hit TV show 30 years later. I’ll get into season 2 later on.

Saturday was one of those wrap-everything-up-and-move-on-to-the-next-project kinda days. I finished up all my parts for The Norliss Tapes upcoming It’s Halloween EP leaving Staffan to finish up the remaining bits for what now looks like will be a five-track record. It’s funny how he and I just keep riffing off of each other and what began as “hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we did one Halloween-themed song to give away for free?” ended up as five songs that just came from brainstorming and sending each other various sound bytes to work with. I love it and gotta admit that it’s the first time I experience this sorta thing with a collaborator. Five tracks and there’ll be a couple of surprises thrown in (vocals!) so make sure you check it out in the next couple of days.

Finished with the songs I finally got around to remix and remaster a couple of tracks from my old hardcore project Gå Vidare till Norrmalmstorg. Swedish for “Advance to Mayfair” off the Monopoly game – both a kiss-off to rich kids as well as an ironic statement to how commercial we thought we sounded – the band was more interested in just pummeling an audience than setting new land speed records that is so common (and clichéd) in the genre, especially these postmodern days. Taking our inspiration from early Black Flag we mixed it with Motorhead and Black Sabbath in order to create a sound that was truly uncompromising – loud and heavy with a pure adrenalin delivery.

One session saw us recording a total of 14 songs in one day with a guy that had the typical less-than-cooperative Swedish engineer attitude of “I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, I don’t understand what you’re trying to achive, so I’m just gonna be arrogant all day and ignore every request you might have – or at least question it. But I do expect to get paid when it’s finished of course.” The session tapes remained unmixed and unreleased with the exception of a feeble attempt on my part of trying to remaster an existing rough mix about two years ago (with less than satisfactory results). Anyway, early Sunday morning I finally had the opportunity to sit down on my own and just unleash the punch-in-the-gut oomph I always knew this band had. It took roughly 12 hours of work, but the seven-track EP Blästrad (Swedish slang for being extremely drunk somewhat equivalent of “hammered”) is available via the band’s Bandcamphere. All members have heard it and are really happy with the results (me included), so how about a sample track: